U.S. Company Pioneers Autonomous Aerial Wildfire Suppression
Rain, an Alameda, California-based concern specializing in aerial wildfire containment technology, has announced an oversubscribed seed round, closing $9.7-million in financing to provide fire agencies prepositioned autonomous aircraft with which to contain wildfires before the blazes rage out of control. San Francisco-based venture capital firm DBL Partners (the DBL moniker being an abbreviation of Double Bottom Line) led the round, with participation from VoLo Earth Ventures, Kapor Capital, and Convective Capital. Additional investors include Immad Akhund, Brian Bjelde, Steve Blank, John and Patrick Collison, Edward Fenster, Dylan Field, Nat Friedman, Daniel Gross, Geoff Ralst